Rep. Chip Roy is among the House Republicans objecting to taxpayer money being used for senators' lawsuits over ex-Special Counsel Jack Smith's probe. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images; Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images; Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"It had been done without our knowledge. I mean, it had been added in the Senate without our knowledge," Cole said. "It was a real trust factor … I mean, all of a sudden, this pops up in the bill, and we're confronted with either leave this in here, or we pull it out, we have to go to conference, and the government doesn't get reopened."
It was placed into the bill by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and given the green-light by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sources confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Thune put the provision into the bill at the request of members of the Senate GOP, a source familiar with the negotiations told Fox News Digital, which included Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
It was a big point of contention when the House Rules Committee met to prepare the legislation for a final vote on Tuesday night. Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Austin Scott, R-Ga., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va., all shared House Democrats’ frustration with the measure, but they made clear it would not stand in the way of ending what had become the longest shutdown in history.
Those Republicans agreed with the motivations behind their Senate counterparts wanting to sue but bristled over the notion that it would come at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Roy told Fox News Digital that he brought his concerns to the Senate GOP himself.
"Well, they heard them," Roy said when asked how those concerns were received. "I mean, you know, the lords don’t like to be told by mere commoners what to do. But we’re going to have to take a pretty strong stand on this one."
The measure’s inclusion was enough for Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., to vote against the final bill, telling reporters, "I'm not voting to send Lindsey Graham half a million dollars."
Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., among the GOP lawmakers outside the Rules Committee who made their concerns public, introduced legislation to repeal the provision.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters on his way to the Senate weekly policy luncheons at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 6, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
"Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators," Cruz told Politico.
Several senators were unaware of the provision’s inclusion, including Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch appropriations subcommittee.
"I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work," Heinrich said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate."
TRUMP SIGNS BILL ENDING LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY
Most of the eight senators who did have their phone records subpoenaed as part of Smith’s investigation were also unaware of the provision until the legislation was unveiled over the weekend and have no intent to file a lawsuit.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, "first learned about this provision when he and his staff were reading the bill to open the government," Amanda Coyne, a senior advisor for the lawmaker, told Fox News Digital. "The senator has no plans to sue."
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, heads to votes at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 9, 2025. (Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images)
And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has pressed for a full disclosure of the probe alongside Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "I have no plans at this time" to sue.
"If I did sue, it would only be for the purpose of using the courts to expose the corrupt weaponization of federal law enforcement by the Biden and Obama administrations," he said. "With the full cooperation in our congressional investigations from the Trump DOJ and FBI, that shouldn’t be necessary."
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But he noted that he supports the provision, "As a deterrent to prevent future misuse of federal agencies."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sought a declaratory judgment, rather than monetary, over her phone records being requested by Smith before the provision was added into the bill. She said she would support plans to repeal the provision.
"If the Senate votes on the bill to undo the Arctic Frost provision in the government funding bill, I will support the effort to reverse it," she said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This fight is not about the money; it is about holding the left accountable for the worst weaponization of government in our nation’s history."
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-unity-shattered-controversial-measure-government-shutdown-bill